The production modules are adapted to a specific production environment and/or to specific products by means of operational settings, that is to say settings of their operating parameters. In this case, the operational settings are generally subject to a multiplicity of restrictions which may be due to the design or may result from interaction between a production module and a product or another production module. In particular, operational settings of different production modules which have not been matched may result in conflicts of settings.
In addition, there may be more or less favorable operational settings with regard to a purpose or a performance of the production in a region permitted by the restrictions. For example, although a high processing temperature can shorten a machining period, it can also increase the energy consumption. Accordingly, although faster transport of a product or faster transfer of a product can shorten a production period, it can increase the risk of allowing the product to fall.
Accordingly, it is often the aim to determine operational settings for the production modules of a production system which comply with predefined restrictions and are overall as favorable as possible for the production system with regard to predefinable criteria or at least form an acceptable approximation to an optimum setting.
It is known practice to centrally manage the operational settings of production modules in the production system. In practice, suitable optimized operational settings which avoid conflict are frequently manually determined in this case with the cooperation of experienced fitters.
However, a change, a failure, a replacement or an addition of a production module in the production system or else changes caused by the product often result in the optimal values of some operational settings shifting, new or changed restrictions being added and/or existing restrictions being canceled. Such changes of restrictions may result in conflicts of different operational settings, in particular. If such a conflict is not immediately resolved, this may result in downtimes for the production system. In addition, a shift in the optimal values of operational settings may result in unfavorable production conditions.